CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Lime-Turmeric Shrimp with African Fruit Salad

I saw this recipe as part of a Central African Republic lifestyle reel, thus had to guess at the quantities of ingredient, nor can I verify it is widely eaten. But it sounded up my family's alley, was quick to prepare, and used easily-found ingredients, so seemed more likely to be something we'd cook again than other recipes we saw. As that is the point of this endeavor, I went with it. Glad we did. It fit the bill.

Lime-Turmeric Shrimp

2 cups basmati rice

1½ lbs raw peeled shrimp, ~26/30

2 limes

2 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoons salted butter

1 medium yellow onion

1 large tomato, such as beefsteak

1 teaspoon tomato paste

½ teaspoon table salt

⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 small bunch cilantro or ½ medium bunch cilantro

Additional salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook the rice according to directions.

2. Rinse the shrimp and pat dry. Squeeze the juice of the limes on top of it, then sprinkle on the turmeric. Toss together and put in fridge until ready to use.

3. Heat butter over medium-low heat in a large sauté pan or Dutch oven. Peel onion and cut into large chunks. Crore tomato and cut into large chunks. Grind, then purée either first onion, then tomato in a mini food processor, or together in a blender. Add both pulverized veggies to the heated butter. Add in the tomato paste. Cook over medium-low heat 10 minutes, stirring often. If mixture starts to stick, and in a few tablespoons of water.

4. Drain shrimp and add to mixture. Cook another 2 minutes.

5. Using kitchen shears or a chef's knife, finely mince the cilantro, stems and leaves. Add to the salt, pepper, and cilantro pan and cook 3-5 additional minutes,  until shrimp are cooked through. Season to taste.

6. Serve over rice.

   
   

African Fruit Salad

2 ripe bananas

2 ripe mangos

1 large papaya

½ lime

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel the bananas and cut into large slices. Peel and core the mango and cut into large chunks. Cut the papaya in half, remove the seeds, peel, and cut into large chunks.

2. Mix all together. Squeeze lime juice overtop, then sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste.

#shrmpwithliime #fruitsalad #centralafricanrepublic

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FUN FACTS:

• Central African Republic is one of the best places in the world for star-gazing; along with Chad and Madagascar, CAR has the most pristine night sky, in terms of no light pollution, in the world.

• From 1976–1979, the country was renamed the "Central African Empire" under Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who crowned himself Emperor Bokassa I in a lavish coronation ceremony modeled on Napoleon's, reportedly costing a huge chunk of the nation's annual budget.

• CAR itself has participated in every Summer Olympics from 1968 through 2020 without a podium finish of its own, but in he Sydney 2000 Olympics, Obadele Thompson, from CAR, won a bronze medal for the men's 100-meter sprint competing for Barbados,